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“The 256-page indictment against the 83-year-old billionaire paints a picture of an autocrat who was so concerned about losing power that he paid part of a $44m (£26m) bribe to a former German banker, Gerhard Gribkowsky, to keep his job.”

“We’ve not made much progress, and this circuit has really shown where our problems are. We’re not very quick at the moment and we’re destroying our tyres, which is one of our biggest problems, and we can’t get the fronts working.”

Comment of the day

I have a hard time understanding why Vettel is vilified for racing while the Mercs and everyone else is admired for the same. I think Vettel was perfectly right in saying tough luck. In fact I am more disappointed in Red Bull for giving team orders. Even if it may have cost a podium (which is questionable) I still think it makes better spectacle for racing and also would have given Ricciardo more credit.@Vishy

67 comments on Ecclestone’s latest trial to begin on Thursday

I don’t know why button is baffled. McLaren have been in the doldrums a long time, the mantra “lack of downforce” should be on their business cards, and the one year they did have a potentially winning car, the wheels fell off their organisation and their star driver had a meltdown.

Button certainly made the right choice to leave Brawn, but Lewis made the right choice to leave McLaren.

Yeah i was thinking after this race that as a car, the McLaren is really no better than last year’s effort, maybe even worse. The difference is they are getting carried somewhat by the Merc engine, although even with that they finished behind a Torro Rosso and probably would have been behind Lotus on pace.

They’ve looked a bit better in the other races this year so expect them not to be as weak at most circuits, but Barcelona and Monaco coming up are going to be really painful if they can’t bring some major updates for them.

He’s baffled because they started on quite a positive note, what do you expect the lad to say? And for @scuderia29 to make such a comment about him leaving Brawn is a bit silly really unless you consider one of his traits ‘seeing into the future’.

Big Ron talked the talk at the beginning of the year and I really got behind it but now it’s starting to show it’s cracks. Kinda fed up of Mclaren pitching their luck on future investment and development, put it into practice now boys!

@kartingjimbo theres really nothing silly about what i said, you obviously missed the context. Hairs believed Button made the right choice to leave for mclaren, i was pointing out that POTENTIALLY that move wasnt for the best, i made no comment about jenson seeing into the future or criticising his decision, i’m looking at the situation with hindsight

The difference between Red Bull in China and Mercedes in Bahrain is that by losing time Ricciardo lost the chance to challenge Alonso, and Vettel might have fallen back into Hulkenberg’s clutches. Mercedes were never in any risk of not finishing 1-2 unless they ran into each other.

…….yes,exactly!! And dontforget that some 4rsehole at the Chinese GP waved the flag 1 or 2 laps in front of Lewis before he thought the race was finished!!!!!!! With all the technology involved by and with the FIA does that not make us suspicious that something underhand is taking place? How the fa………….k is a race being Chequered Flagged before the FINAL LAP!???????????? WAS someone critical on fuel for another 1 or 2 laps?

Well, given that F1 increasingly resembles professional wrestling more than any other “sport” (whereas it used to be more like boxing), this would not be a complete surprise. The structure and management of F1 is extremely opaque. Ferrari have all sorts of special and secret privileges, people suddenly lose (or gain) jobs unexpectedly, and Bernie still seems to be able to make almost anything happen if he wants it. If the Mafia ran a sport F1 is the sort of thing you might expect. No wonder so many teams find it difficult to find sponsors; F1 does appear to be grubby and getting steadily worse.

I think Vettel has a good balance between team orders and looking out for himself, the same can be said for Massa, they have both obliged their teams in the past. Vettel only just conceded a position to RIC in the last race for the team’s benefit. I think it was a mistake by the team in not giving a good explanation for the order at the time it was given. While I would personally prefer flat out racing, as most fans would. I can understand the need for orders when one car is holding up the other when there is a chance the faster could add more points to the constructors championship by making a pass.

Hopefully lesson learned by RBR as is the case at Williams. Although RBR told Vettel they were on different strategies it was delayed and cost RIC time. Kind of funny that he wasn’t, but hey, ask Webber about “tough luck”.

I disagree. For me team orders are wrong no matter the situation and I agree with COTD. It’s like saying that killing people is ok during the war but not ok when it’s peace. Politically you could be right but no matter the situation it’s still wrong.

You’re right sorry for that. My point was that there is no difference between Mercedes giving team orders and Red Bull giving team orders. The team have a choice. You either use them or not. I actually feel that letting HAM and ROS to race what much bigger risk than allowing RIC to overtake VET. They could loose 1-2 if they’d crash.
Team Orders are just wrong and destroy the show. That’s why Bahrain race was so spectacular. There was no Team Orders and cars with pretty much same speed were racing each other.
Vettel is not to blame here. He should disobey the order completely and show us who’s better of two on the track. Simple as that.

I don’t have a problem with team orders if they’re needed to maximise a team’s potential to score the most amount of points possible for them.

For example, in Bahrain, and in China, I feel Red Bull were warranted in issuing the order for Seb to move over because he was clearly holding Ricciardo up which will compromise their points scoring ability.

When I disagree with team orders is when two team-mates are in the lead and one is told to move over simply because one driver is favoured over the other. The best example of this is Schumacher and Barrichello in Austria in 2002. I understand why teams choose to do this, but it’s really not good sportsmanship.

Regarding Cotd, the reason I fell people have a problem with Vettel and team orders goes back to Malaysia last year. Not the multi 21 saga but the fact that Vettel tried to force a team order on mark in the earlier part of the race when Hamilton was on his tail and he radio’ed in saying “get mark out of the way!”, that message seems to be forgotten by most, but what stood out to me was that he had no problem with team orders when he of benefit, but when he is required to comply for benefit of his team mate, i.e. Multi-21 with Mark and just recently in China, he seems to choose when he will comply, maybe that’s why hes vilified, because he seems to blow hot and cold on the team order debate, complying like in Bahrain and then calling in “tough luck” in the last race.

For example Mark Webber had no problem ignoring the team orders as Silverstone in 2011, Yet he didn’t like it when Vettel ignoring team orders worked against him.

Remember that we only get to hear bits of the team radio, If we had access to everything I’ve no doubt we would hear every driver out there pushing for team orders at one point or another yet not liking it when things get reversed.

He complied in Bahrain because the drivers started on different tyres and were on different strategies. Both of the drivers and the team stated that they had discussed the possibility of one letting the other passed before that race, so as not to compromise either strategy.

In China they started on the same tyres and had run the same strategy up to that point, stopping just a few laps apart, his question about the tyres shows the way he was thinking, if the team had said “we’re going to split strategies let Daniel through”, he would have understood why.

It could be that the team’s “normal” policy is to ask one driver to let the other through if they are on different strategies, so as not to compromise either’s race, in this situation they may still get to race each other later in the race if the different strategies converge, but that if they are on the same strategy to let them race each other.

@aqibqadeer Always good to see an article is popular! But this one usually runs to over 5,000 words and as you’d imagine there’s lots of stuff in it that needs checking. So I don’t make any promises about when it’ll be done by. Normally it appears on Wednesday or Thursday, but that’s not a guarantee.

Regarding COTD: While every case is different, it’s true that Vettel shouldn’t be vilified for racing and that Red Bull deserves criticism for giving team orders.

Dietrich Mateschitz recently said that Red Bull’s involvement in F1 would depend on “sportsmanship”, criticised the new F1 and claimed that “GP2 partially provides more racing and fighting”. I guess it’s obvious that team orders won’t create more racing and fighting. Practice what you preach.

That said, it’s good to see that both Red Bull drivers seem to get equal treatment (whoever is faster is the number one), hopefully it stays that way.

True but Alonso was looking pretty marignal on fuel by the end of the race so might have had to use a lower engine mode for the last couple of laps. Lap charts show he slowed a bit on last 2 laps, but he could have been easing down and had it covered (although RIC was nearly in DRS range by the end so i slightly doubt that).

In either case, the early chequered flag made it almost irrelevant, apart from maybe causing some controversy, and i think we have enough of that elsewhere in F1 ;)

Alonso finished 1.2 sec ahead of Ricciardo at the end and if we consider that had Vettel let Ricciardo straight away he wouldn’t have lost 4 seconds and he might have been sniffing around that Ferrari’s gearbox. That said, it would have been really difficult for him to pass Alonso and I’m no Alonso fan.
Also as you said the early chequered flag made it irrelevant so I just want to finish this thing by saying – Whatever happens, happens for a good reason :)

Surprising to see Vettel struggling so much. His start of the season wasn’t great, but in Malaysia he drove brilliantly, in Bahrain he had problems both in qualifying and in the race, so it’s difficult to tell, but he had a decent pace and he was ahead of Ricciardo until the Safety Car came out.
That said, his first stint with the soft tyres in China was not bad, but when he put on the mediums he was just nowhere.

Maybe it was a setup issue, or the peculiar combo of green track and medium tyres that blew his problems with the car out of proportion.

@Vishy Well for me it makes a perfect sense to have a team orders in this circumstances. It’s a one thing to have a fight for first position between two drivers from one team with similar pace, but it’s totally different thing when one is visible faster than the other and there is only a chance to ruin a race to both of them and the team will suffer as well. Don’t get me wrong, I’m totally against team orders, but I’m OK with it when it comes to this kind of situations, when team orders are the only reasonable thing to do. In fact there should be no team order in this case if Vettel just let go the position because Ricciardo was way too fast at that moment to be kept behind in the first place. If the team comes first, as Vettel told afterwards, than he should tought about it on the track as well. Plus the team should prepare it drivers for the situation in advance by informing the drivers what the pace of each other is, thus avoiding this kind of situations.

While I do get where red bull were coming from in asking vettel to let Ricciardo pass, I think mr vettel was reacting from experience. He knows that it is a long season with plenty of potential for change.

Now most expect mercedes to maintain their performance advantage, but we are after all only just into a new set of regulations, and he’s in a team that has shown time and again that they are amazing at in season development. So for all he knows, while mercedes currently enjoy a second per lap advantage, what if red bull out developed them and made their car the fastest? A couple of DNFs for mercedes due to Hamilton & rosberg battling and the red bull drivers may be right back in the mix. He may then regret his actions earlier in the season where he didn’t battle his pacey team mate, who has become a championship rival.

Now that scenario may seem far fetched but this is sport, it’s unpredictable, that’s why we love it so, and that’s why, while the drivers have to respect the team, they have to be selfish and fight for every point they can get

@3dom
Vettel was in no position to race against Ric this time as he wasn’t in Bahrain as well. As I said before I’m aganst team orders and in this case Vettel was just frustrated because it was second time in a row that he was asked to step a side. And he said that he let through Ricciardo because of the team. He should just said what Massa said after Malaysia that he was driving for him self not just for the team. It is done with more dignity at least.

I do agree that it was the right decision for the team to make in terms of maximising their points and preventing both drivers from squabbling and ruining their tyres and possibly falling prey to other drivers behind them. I was just stating what I thought influenced vettel’s “tough luck” remark prior to him being told the difference in strategy.

We get lots of time to analyse and dissect these situations, whereas in real time they have to be quick and decisive.

Ultimately, while I agree that red bull’s decision to manage their drivers’ positions from the pit wall made sense, I feel that I would have respected them if they’d let them race too (less rational but we racing fans love a good battle, right?). Perhaps indecisive in my part? Hmm and I always thought I made good strategy calls from my armchair ;-)

It’s certainly a tribute to the form of sportscar racing in 2014 that I spent the entirety of Sunday’s World Endurance Championship opener at Silverstone without learning the result of that morning’s Chinese GP. The dominant “new F1” controversy raging over motorsport was ignored completely on Sunday by fans and pundits alike, and in its place was the unanimous praise of sportscar racing’s new era; an era where the money and might of Audi, Toyota and Porsche battle it out on the most public of stages. I say “most public” on basis of the volumes of spectators Silverstone hosted on Sunday, many of whom were tempted by Webber’s sportscar return, the ticket value versus the British GP, the brilliant access afforded to fans (that takes the shape of an open paddock and a pit walk/autograph session) and the deafening, glorious, spine-tingling audio melting pot of GT and LMP engines that is the soundtrack of the FIA’s WEC. From where I was sat, the enthusiasm and expanse of the crowds could only be beaten by British GP Sunday, and for the first time since Group B WRC, F1 might just have found itself a motorsport rival…

On comments regarding the correlation between Vettel’s form and a lack of blown diffuser … heard the same said at Silverstone this weekend, which was a fantastic weekend, so much more fan friendly than the Grand Prix there.

I know it is still a bit too soon, but considering many of us doubted Vettel even though he won 4 titles and Ricciardo is now at least at the same level as he is, I think we’ll soon be able to say – give those 4 titles to Newey. Not only did he defy team orders, Ricciardo overtook him anyway, and then Vettel claims he ‘changed his mind and let him through’. Embarassing.

I remember being a bit sad when drivers like Hill or Button became champions, but this is just ridiculous. F1 has come to a point where a merely ‘above average’ driver can become a mega-champion. You’d need Nakajima to throw away those titles, just as you need a Katayama now to throw away the Mercedes title. And no, I don’t have anything against the Japanese – Koba would become 4 times world champion if he had the current Merc advantage and Webber for a teammate. (Unless Daniel Ricciardo is a superstar and we just don’t know it yet…)